Mini CNC Machine Kickstarts Making Of Custom Knives

Knife Making With SYIL Mini CNC Machine

· Customer Stories

With the help of his SYIL 5 series DimitryOsarenko, founder of D.O.C.K. from Russia, now produces the most amazing custom knives. Osarenko, a cutting-edge knife artist, adopted modern tools to turn his designs into bespoke high-quality knives. His range of items includes a personalized pocket knife as well as custom bowie knife. He embraced SYIL'smini CNC machine to enhance his craftsmanship. Read on to learn how Osarenko was able to increase productivity, improve the quality of its knives, innovate and take a competitive position in the market for artisan bespoke knives.

Challenges

A crop of one-of-a-kind knife makers are taking a stand against mass-produced knives. Numerous knife artisans make the most beautiful pieces. However thanks to the time required, bespoke knives are very costly though. And sometimes the actual quality and performance are not as expected. Osarenko was facing these same challenges. "I started out doing everything manually - literally from scratching lines into the stock to grinding and drilling all the holes manually - it's an insane amount of work," Dimitry Osarenko explains. "Then there was the issue of getting quality of each custom knife at the highest levels. You know, my customers are high-demanding. And I had trouble with precision and simply the performance of my handmade knives." In short, Osarenko needed a modern high-precision CNC kit to enhance his craftsmanship.

Solution

Osarenko came in touch with SYIL and this was a true eye-opener. SYIL convinced him that a mini or personal CNC machine could help him realize his goals. SYIL provided him with a full CNC kit and instruction. "D.O.C.K." uses the SYIL 5 mini CNC machine to produce knives of high quality and with greater speed, reducing the time for production.

Benefits

Dimitry has discovered that automation with his mini CNC machine from SYIL has made the business significantly more efficient and he is looking to do more. "The way I'm trying to set this up, the only hand work we are going to have is grinding the blades themselves. Virtually everything else is going to be machined. That probably saves me upwards of 70% of my time," he explains. "In my opinion, if you're going to get into this business, you're absolutely crazy not to get a personal CNC kit."

As part of a new generation of knife makers, Osarenko's background using CNC puts him in a rapidly expanding group of artisans mixing old craftsmanship with new technologies. “I think that hand-craftsmanship is absolutely one of those skills that you need to have as a knife maker, but there are real advantages to being able to layout your designs on a computer,” he said. “I think it’s huge to be able to see how parts are going to function and how things are going to work. And, moreover, I think you can make products more accurately and consistently with a CNC. I still do all sorts of things by hand, like the blade grinding, embellishment, and the fit and finish. But if I needed to manually mill the integral frame locks, I’d be there for a week just milling one frame. It’s something I really think the CNC is meant for. It’s a very complicated design and there are a lot of little subtleties that need to be done precisely. This allows me to make my frames correctly and consistently, it’s highly repeatable.”